Sliver

There was no one running amuck during the drizzle that was predicted to morph into a blistering thunderstorm. No one except for a heart-rending Sophie had the gall to peek their curious little heads outside. The authorities signaled for all civilians in Aries to remain indoors that night. They even issued a flash flood warning in some of the lower-class communities who lived in the slums, cautioning them to evacuate.

Late-night party-goers were issued a blaring alert on their smartphones, informing them to return safely to their homes before the thunderstorm struck. Not even the weather modification systems could alter the severity of the disaster to completely nullify it; although some minor modifications were capable.

But nothing would stop Sophie from heeding the call from her former best friend; her most trusted acquaintance whom she dedicated her life to protecting was out there, somewhere. If somehow there was still a God or an omniscient deity that existed solely to grant miracles, tonight was the night that Sophie's prayers were answered with a slim fraction of a probability to be the time. There was a sliver of hope inside her tender heart, and she was not willing to lose the opportunity.

Sophie sprinted down the street as the ticklish and feathery drops of rain soon transformed into massive beads of a downpour. Her palm attempted to cover her forehead to shield her vision from the sudden rainfall, but it was ineffective against the overall mission of traveling on foot. Her rain-soaked boots gradually weighed her down as water entered inside with each step. Her drenched black jacket and slim pants soaked her skin permanently with a cold sensation that amalgamated into her hips, sending chills down her unnerving limbs.

Her dedication to following the location given through her smartphone ignored all of the overbearing consequences of the rain's harsh descent. She couldn't care less about what had happened to her. If she was granted a chance to relive the moment when her life plummeted into oblivion, she was willing to take that risk no matter how dire the consequences were.

Despite this, the chances of the text message being a complete trap were nothing short of the truth. Sophie remained on high alert to surroundings as she sped through the district grounds with no holds barred. She was armed for emergency purposes and hoped nothing would convince her to defend against a serious threat.

The rain's severe and aggressive nature began to take its toll on Sophie. Her completely doused long hair straightened itself, breaking the ponytail style apart after rushing with all of her built-up stamina. For a brief moment, she considered herself foolish to chase lost historic causes. But, much like Ryo, she had a chance at redemption that she did not want to lose.

Sophie skidded her black boots against a slippery puddle of slag as she entered a dimly lit historical park in Taut Plaza. After taking several slow strides in the flickering mellow light, the setting oddly reminded her of the night Ash was kidnapped by her pursuers. Her memory served her right, as that night, she remembered how she was the one responsible for Ash's disappearance. The way she shattered her frail heart and told her to commit suicide was nothing but parasitic disbelief that constantly latched onto Sophie's mind, reminding her of what a monster she was.

Still, she pressed on, keeping her defenses raised after she pinpointed the exact destination that "Ash" had sent her on her smartphone. Her boots were lathered in water as she took several strides against puddles forming on the caved tiles underneath her. The park had shared its sense of aged antiquity with how the area was long forgotten among the public. It made for a suspicious area perfect for a trap.

But if the trap came in the form of an injured silhouette of a figure limping across the pavement, then perhaps the assumption was wrong, Sophie thought. She squinted her eyes and curved her eyebrows, questioning the presence of the unknown figure standing ahead of her. Her fists remained clenched, and her right foot slipped an inch backward in caution.

From her view, there was no resemblance to Ash Meguro at all from where she stood. She anticipated the moment the figure would limp through the dim and flickering streetlight, serving as a gameshow spotlight to unveil the identity of the winner. Sophie held her breath in and blatantly stared at the head of the silhouette. But nothing would prepare her for the moment to come.

"Shibusawa...?" Sophie's weak and chilly breath somehow managed to escape her vocal cords as she stood in disbelief.

Nobu Shibusawa, Sophie's childhood friend in her half-delinquent trio, hobbled across the wettened pavement with his right eye violently gouged out. His right arm was twisted beyond comprehension, and his left leg was struggling to balance on his snapped ankle. Tufts of his hair had been pulled out, and recently emerged scars riddled his bare arms and neck area. While Sophie studied Nobu's condition, he gazed up at Sophie with a blank stare of confusion, followed by a rare smile that he would often do in high school.

"Is that you...? Sophie?" Nobu's voice was also wobbly. "I... I can't believe you came. You look so... different. I couldn't recognize you..."

A million questions rushed to her head like a brain vat struggling to cope with the pressure of conceptualizing reality. Why? Why now? These conflicting thoughts only sought to hinder and oppress Sophie's true feelings, making her reminisce about the last time that she had seen him when Ash was kidnapped. Although Nobu's condition was intensely severe, nothing held Sophie's rage back.

"You look good, Shibusawa," Sophie sarcastically remarked, judging him based on his crimes of past times. "If you can even look at all with that eye of yours. In fact, look at me in the eye and remind me what you did. Tell me what happened that night!"

Nobu remained quiet as his injuries prevented him from speaking any further. There were deep scratches on his neck, forcing him to clutch it as the rain soaked the blood away down his fingertips.

"Tell me how that night went," Sophie continued, continuing the pressure with her aggravated voice. "Tell me how you betrayed Ash after everything she did for you! She stood up for you, supported you, understood you! You wanted to stop the gang that you said yourself was fucking you over. And you threw it all away just for your self-righteous title on becoming exactly like Ryo Nakai. You sacrificed everything and everyone that loved you just so you could get your ten minutes of fame. TELL ME! I WANT TO HEAR IT!" Sophie screamed, releasing all of the pent-up anger she stored over the years against her contender.

Nobu exhaled, shuddering in the cold as his wounds began convulsing and throbbing with blood. The anxiety and pressure that Sophie placed against him were weakening his spirit, and his injuries had to show for it.

"You've got balls standing here in front of me," Sophie stated. "And I'll bet you used Ash's phone to text me. The one that you stole from her after those sick fucks kidnapped her. The time when you led her to that spot in the rain and took advantage of her kindness! And if she's dead... then you've got hell to pay."

Sophie placed her right hand behind her pants pocket, brandishing Nobu Shibusawa's Japanese tachi from a porcelain sheath that she had kept all these years after the incident. She aimed it at Nobu's face as water droplets streamed down his nose to splatter beneath his feet.

"You see this? You see this right here? This is yours. This is the same one that you used to threaten my life that night, and I kept it all this time because I hoped that one day, I would see you again and kill you with it for what you did! You took her away from me. You took away my chance to live a life I wouldn't regret!"

Sophie approached Nobu and placed the edge of the tachi against his heart. Nobu's neutral expression and silence only ate away at her mind, believing he was playing games based on his sudden appearance. Sophie nudged the edge of the blade against his chest, threatening to use it to execute him as vengeance.

"You better apologize to Ash in the afterlife, because that's all the forgiveness you'll ever see in your miserable time there. You're a double-crossing backstabbing bullshitter who deserves all of this. And honestly... you should have killed me that night. You could have saved me the torture of living a life with an empty void in my heart, wishing that everything could have changed that night. But you wouldn't understand it, would you? You didn't care. You see what this is, Shibusawa? You live and breathe to make me suffer for life, and I will never forgive you."

Clenching her teeth in misery and bitter rage, Sophie gasped as Nobu placed his left palm on her tachi-wielding hand, patting on it to express approval. He smiled shortly after as his light tears became mixed with the rain's downpour.

"Do it," He whispered. "If that's what you want to be happy again, then kill me. I own up to it all. I did exactly what you said. Because frankly, I don't want to live either."

Sophie pulled her tachi back and directly slammed her fist into Nobu's cheek to knock him toward the wet ground. His body fell back against a puddle as his injuries prevented him from recovering successfully. Sophie's inner rage exhumed a numbing sensation that stopped the cold from getting under her skin.

"You think... you think that I live for revenge!?" Sophie cried, slicing the tachi through the air. "And look at you, playing the victim despite everything that you did to us! I'm not like you at all, because I've got people to protect! You have no idea what I've been through, how many losses I've lived through, or what I've done to cope with it all! So finally, you feel the pain that I've been living with, and now you think you're some kind of righteous man looking to get pardoned!?"

"You can pardon me with death," Nobu repeated. "I don't want this anymore. I don't want to be like Nakai. I... you... you may kill me. Please. Make it quick."

Sophie pointed her tachi toward Nobu's frail body, soaked in the puddle beneath her with no intentions of fighting back. The power dynamic between the two was too convenient. During the incident, it was Nobu who was taking advantage of a cowling Sophie who tried to convince him that the world was on his side. Now, the oppositions have switched, and Sophie couldn't be more disgusted with that tempered fact.

"Do it yourself," Sophie said, dropping the tachi in front of his legs. "Then we can end this little game that you've been playing with me for years. To think I held onto this blade with a lifelong goal to end you. I won't be like that. Never."

"She's alive," Nobu said, quivering in hesitation. "She's alive and she misses you."

"You're lying."

"No. I tried to reach her. I really did. I was reminded of who I was and thought if it was worth it, being a person of power to fight those who opposed us. The cruel adults who stepped on everything we stood for. But it wasn't worth it. You were right, and I was wrong."

She didn't come for approval, and his half-apology was more than irritating.

"And no amount of what I did could ever be forgiven for someone like her," Nobu continued. "But I tried. I tried, and I tried, and I tried to save her. She wanted to be saved. She wanted to go back to her life the same way it had always been. She didn't mind the hate. She begged to have someone by her side, and she continues crying for all of that to happen."

"You're a liar!" Sophie cried, lunging at Nobu while he was on the ground. Her bitter hands crashed against Nobu's torn collar, sending a direct punch to his gouged eye despite his injuries. "You think this can change what you did? HUH!? You don't give a shit when you hurt people, do you? You think you can change all of the trauma that you inflicted upon her? What is this, some kind of cry for help after realizing what a failure you are!?"

"I am," Nobu said. "I am. After what happened to me months ago, Mr. Stormfield was upset with me. And to this day, he continues to punish and torture me from his disappointment. That's why I want to die. I want you to end this pain. End the pain that he drowns me with."

"Stormfield? You mean Rion Stormfield? Don't make me laugh! He's dead!"

"No... his brother. He has a brother. The owner of Polycyclone Industries."

"What...?" Sophie released her grip on Nobu's torn collar. Another one? And the owner of a multi-billion-figure corporation responsible for creating the most notable technology in the world?

"My services were no longer required. I wanted to be on top, but he proved me wrong. I turned rogue and tried saving Ash. But it failed. So I don't want this anymore. My failures have proven me wrong."

"You don't get to say that," Sophie stated, pointing the tachi at his face and threatening him with it with bloodlust. "You don't get to walk away from this just like that. I won't let you," Her scowl was beyond repulsive after denying Nobu's sudden change of heart after his purposely mischievous behavior laid waste to the rest of her future. She advanced on Nobu after being severely irritated by his presence. She pulled him up from the wettened ground and shoved her arm against his neck to redirect him toward a concrete wall.

"Sophie..." Nobu whispered, losing his breath against the collision of the wall.

"Where... is... she?" Sophie hissed, aiming the tachi at his neck with him pinned to the wall. Her seething wrath and rage gradually crushed Nobu's throat, applying heinous pressure with her forearm.

"I... don't know..." Nobu whispered, struggling to breathe.

"You're lying," Sophie rebuked, exhuming fumes of anger out of her nostrils. "You're a fucking liar."

"I'm not... believe... me..."

"And why should I? What makes you think that I can ever trust you for what you did?!"

A time-slowing field generated around Sophie and Nobu, encapsulating them in an inescapable aura. The two of them froze as the lion-masked man stepped out from the shadows, capturing the both of them on command. He approached them from behind, boots clicking on the rainy puddles as his mask and black trench coat were soaked in rain.

"In kahoots with the enemy, are we now, Shibusawa?" The lion-masked man concurred, snatching Nobu through the time-slowing field with his leather glove. He yanked him out of the time-slowing field and clutched him in the air by the neck. "You did well. Unintentionally, however. It seems that your concern for this girl led to your downfall. I will be sure to remember that after your punishment."

"Fuck you." Nobu hissed as he was suspended in air.

The lion-masked man snatched Sophie's head through the time-slowing field and seized her neck with his opposite hand. He rammed their heads together with brute force to knock them both unconscious in the rain. Hovering both of them over his burly shoulders, the lion-masked man disappeared into the shadows.

From a distance, a young boy holding a black umbrella unveiled the scene from a distance. His eyebrows dipped as he retreated in the opposite direction Sophie came from.